Ungrounded
by ScottishPanties
Summary: AU. The psyche ward of the Merry Sun Hospital hardly seems the best place to nurture dreams of freedom, but one patient is sure they'll all be perfect crewmates once they all get out.


Luffy smiled at the woman who left him by the door, before turning his sights on the rest of the room's visitors. Each of the others sat alone, huddled in their respective corners, reading the provided magazines, poking at trays of flavorless food, and avoiding eye contact from no one who was looking. Luffy thought they were all perfect. Weird, maybe, but perfect.

Swinging his feet high as he walked, the boy hovered by the friend who was closest, mumbling to himself and unaware of the proximity. Luffy leaned over, beaming.

"Morning, Usopp!"

The other boy started, before looking up, and breaking into a shaky grin. "Um. Luffy. Hi, you-hi."

"Hi! You still sick?"

Usopp looked down at the thin fingers crossed in his lap. "Always. Think I've got...what's it...Raynaud's phenomenon. Bad circulation. Might die from it." He began rubbing his hands together. "Read about it once. 'S why my fingernails look wrong."

"Oh. A mystery disease." Luffy nodded at the diagnosis, quite serious. "You sure do get sick a lot. Good thing we've got Chopper around." He put his hands on his hips, smiling while Usopp gave him a long look. "But you'll get better soon! And then you can come with me. The sea air's good for that!"

The other boy blinked in that way of his whenever the topic came up, and someone across the room let out a dry laugh. Luffy's head whipped around, lower lip poked out in a pout at the sound. "Oi Nami, don't laugh at people who are sick!"

The redhead rolled her eyes and mumbled something, followed by a small groan as she saw Luffy closing the distance between them. "Would you back off, Luffy? I'm not interested in your babbling. You should stop encouraging these guys, it's just making things harder for them."

"Well, that's because we're stuck inside!" He scratched at the series of healing scabs along one arm. "When we all get out, we'll feel a lot better."

"That's what I'm talking about," the woman insisted. "That attitude of yours, it's just going to confuse these nutters even more."

"What's confusing? I'm just asking you all to be on my crew!" The girl put her head in her hands with another groan as he went on. "All we have to do is wait until we're done here. You'll like it, it's a lot nicer out there."

"Playing pretend with a bunch of loonies does not sound nice," she mumbled through her hands. "Would you stop lumping me in with the rest of you?"

"But you are one of us!" He beamed. "You're already really good at taking things, that's an important skill for a pirate!"

"The lady said to leave her alone!" snapped a voice by the wall, raspy and dry. Nami gave another sigh, turning in particular away from the skinny man in the wheelchair. "You keep bothering her, shithead, I'll make you wish they had you in solitary."

"Hi Sanji! Have you been eating?"

"Miss Nami needs the nourishment more than I do." It was sometimes hard to see Sanji's eyes under that stringy curtain of hair, but he always spoke clearly whenever he decided it was worth it. "She doesn't belong in this sort of filthy environment." He gave a wistful sigh. "She's so clever, working the system in her favor!"

"I don't think pleading insanity instead of jail is much of a favor," she grumbled. Across the room, Franky snickered without looking up from the newspaper he was folding.

"So grounded in spite of your situation," Sanji cooed, his smile falling short of charming due to tobacco-stained teeth. "It's lucky for us to have someone like you here, amongst all the madness!"

"Truly," agreed the dark-haired woman from the far wall, her voice easily heard in spite of its soft tone. "You really are lucky to have a food tester, Mr. Cook. You never know what foul things may be getting put in your meals."

Usopp squeaked, while Nami curled a lip. "Stop encouraging Luffy, Sanji's no chef."

"He was outside, wasn't he?" Robin leaned on her knees with crossed arms. She always kept her arms crossed. "Before the pressure became too much." Sanji didn't say anything, and she chuckled. "It's a common affliction. The radio waves they send into kitchens have been known to scramble the mind."

Nami snorted once more, but the dark-haired boy grinned at Robin as he picked at one scab on his wrist. "You sure do know a lot! It's lucky I found you here."

"Not luck at all. They keep less surveillance on those that they think mad." The elder woman propped her chin up on a hand. "It's simply a matter of knowing where to be, Captain."

"Oh. Neat!"

Sanji huffed, brushing hair from his face with little effect. "Miss Robin, surely you can't think to encourage this shitty kid's plans any further, after last week."

"Why not?" She tilted her head to one side. "Violent encounters aside, it's quite a romantic notion. Any words against it bounce off his mind like rubber. Besides, pirates lead a fabulous life, defying the machinations of our government."

"There's plenty o' ways to do that without riskin' drowning," Franky cut in, smirking as his one hand continued on with the papercraft. "Can give you a big list of 'em, if y'want."

"See how well that worked out for you," Nami muttered, looking the other way when Franky shot her a scowl.

"Yeah! Franky's really good at being different. It's good to have experience! Also cyborgs are awesome."

The big fellow laughed at the word. "Cyborg, huh? One way of puttin' it. Maybe if they actually let me near some tools to spiff up the prosthetics, sure." He put down his finished origami, a tiny ship of ink-stained paper wobbling lopsided on the table. "But I think yer crew needs a little more'n that to keep afloat, bro." He reached for another page to start again.

"I know. We need a musician!" Luffy's head bobbed. "That's what Brook's for!" The room went quiet, but the would-be pirate smiled on. "I talked with him through his door once, it was neat! He should come out with us some time."

A long pause of exchanged glances, before Franky scratched at the burn scars over his shoulder. "Yeah. He'd probably like that."

Before any further discussion of the topic could arise, the doors swung open again, pushed in by a dwarf of a doctor, his entrance just steps ahead of a much taller man with skin marred and puckered by a web of interlacing scars, who kept his eyes on the linoleum floors as he walked. The mousy-haired doctor never quite turned his back on his charge, though he made sure to move quickly enough not to come too closely. Luffy brightened as soon as the pair entered.

"Zoro! They let you back in with us!"

Though, before he could trot over, Nami grasped Luffy by his scratched arm, frowning. He turned back to pout at her. "I know already! He doesn't like it, I won't do it again." Nami's thumb pressed against a bruise, and his scowl deepened. "I can handle it!"

The doctor held up an arm, bags under his eyes. "Luffy, please, give us a little space for a moment, I need to make sure Zoro's going to be all right here."

"He's fine, Chopper, I'll make sure he doesn't get in trouble." Wrestling his arm free of Nami's grasp, Luffy spied a fresh bandage over Zoro's left arm. "Uh oh. Zoro, did you get in the sharp stuff again?"

"He got his hands on a letter opener," Chopper mumbled. "Just a minute, Luffy, he needs to get settled."

"Zoro, you know you're not supposed to do that!" Luffy paced around behind the couch and leaned against the back beside the quiet man, ignoring the doctor's protests. "You're not gonna be strong enough to go to sea if you keep getting hurt!"

The way the room held its breath continued to fly straight over Luffy's head as Zoro glanced down to the arm leaning in beside him, where a picked scab was oozing a single bead of blood. "Is your arm all right." The words were scarcely above a growl, too soft to be heard more than a few feet away. Chopper watched the two of them, hands hovering just over Zoro's arm.

"Yep! Almost all healed up, see?" He wriggled his fingers. "I'm sorry I got you grounded."

Zoro grunted. "Don't mind."

"Good! We'd be in trouble if you were mad before we set sail. If we're all on a boat together, we need to get along." He lifted his head and called across the room. "Even you, Nami!" The redhead waved a dismissive hand, and Zoro cast her a quiet glare.

Chopper, apparently satisfied with Zoro's settling, stepped back and began rifling through his pockets for several small packets. "Luffy. You know it's going to be a while before anyone here will leave, right?"

The dark-haired boy gave a shrug with one shoulder, glancing up at the ceiling. "Well, I'm not in a huge rush, but I don't think I wanna wait too long. There's a lot to do out there!" He smiled. "You don't have to worry about Usopp or Zoro getting sick or anything. That's why you're coming with us!"

A sigh and a shake of the head, but Chopper didn't bother to argue any further. Luffy beamed out at the rest of the room, at the people he'd gotten to meet here. Even if his grandfather had sent him here to keep him from being a pirate, he thought it was a pretty lucky mistake; instead, he'd gotten to find a great crew.

"Hey." Zoro's mumble caught Luffy's attention again, though the heavily scarred man didn't look over. "I'm looking forward to it."

There was an echo of gasps through the room as Luffy pulled Zoro into a hug. There was another when they realized Zoro hadn't reacted to it at all.


End file.
